DailyFinance.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.comDailyFinance.comhttp://o.aolcdn.com/os/df/2013/img/2-dailyfinance_logo_m.pngDailyFinance.comhttp://www.dailyfinance.comen-usCopyright 2015 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Zero-Commission Stock Trades? There's an App for Thathttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/12/18/zero-commission-stock-trades-robinhood-app/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/12/18/zero-commission-stock-trades-robinhood-app/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/12/18/zero-commission-stock-trades-robinhood-app/#commentsFiled under: Technology, Mobile Technology, InvestingBy Josh Constine

Why pay E*Trade or Scottrade $7 to trade a stock when you could do it for free? That premise helped mobile investment app startup Robinhood raise the $3 million seed round led by Index Ventures it announced today. With zero-commission trading it will launch next month, Robinhood is out to prove that young people do care about trading stocks - it's just been too expensive for them to invest small sums.

Robinhood's tech-fueled automated approach could change that.

Wait. Is zero-commission trading even possible? Yes. It doesn't actually cost a brokerage much money to place a trade. In fact, Robinhood's found ways to earn money doing it. But decades-old financial companies have been charging their users $7 to $10 a trade to pay for their brick-and-mortar retail locations, army of employees, and big profit margins. Robinhood plans to replace all that with a mobile app and a lean engineering team. While it might not get rich quick, it wants to be the Amazon of stock trading by building a huge audience and making just a little off each user.

Robinhood first launched in April as an iOS app for tracking stocks and sharing predictions of whether they'd rise or fall. You can also see the track record of other people's predictions and follow those who reliably make the right calls. The crowdsourced stock advice gives users more confidence in their own trading decisions.

At the time the Robinhood app was designed to fill a major hole on mobile, where there was no decent native equivalent of Yahoo Finance or Google Finance's popular websites. Yahoo has since updated its mobile apps, boxing out Robinhood.

Luckily, in October after eight months of waiting, Robinhood was approved by finance regulatory agency FINRA to become a broker-dealer. That meant it could add the big feature missing in its app: the ability to actually buy and sell stocks. It could soon become the first unlimited zero-commission stock brokerage in the world.

Zero-Commission trading could bring a new generation of young investors into the stock market. If you're an old, rich person investing tens of thousands of dollars or more, a $7 fee is pocket change. But if you're young, on a budget, and only buying $500 of stock, a $7 fee is a steep price to pay. "You're losing the amount the stock market appreciates in a year in just commissions." Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev tells me. By eliminating the fee, it becomes financially viable for less wealthy people to get into trading.

To scale up the zero-commission trading feature, Robinhood needs to hire engineers and designers, so it's added to its initial funding from Google Ventures. Today it revealed it's raised $3 million led by Index Ventures, and joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Rothenberg Ventures, and angels like Tim Draper, Howard Lindzon, and more from the finance sector. Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt tells me the startup went with Index because "they were super pasionate about what we were doing. It's important to share the same enthusiasm for the vision and product."

These big name investors weren't just funding the idea, but the Robinhood team. Tenev and Bhatt were all-stars in their math undergrad programs at Stanford. Disclosure: I know that because I went to college with them. Tenev even dropped out of the world-renowned UCLA math PhD program to start building finance companies with Bhatt.

Since 2009, they founded Celeris, an algorithmic trading trading technology startup, and Chronos Research, which sold financial software to top investment banks. Along the way Tenev and Bhatt learned how to navigate financial regulation, discovered the massive opportunity in mobile stock trading, and learned how to build it. Robinhood's trades are executed fast with reliable pricing because these guys had already ran an entire business dedicated to low-latency trading.

How will Robinhood make good on its investment if users trade for free? It has a few ideas. First is charging for API access. Once the startup has its trading system humming, it could let other apps build on top of it for a price. Next is charging users to trade on margin - spending money on credit because their own is still locked up in the three-day waiting period that follows a stock sell. Robinhood will also earn money from what's called "Payment for order flow". Essentially, stock exchanges want lots of stock trading volume so people can always find a buyer or seller, so they're willing to pay a little to get trades executed on their exchange versus another. And eventually, Robinhood could earn interest by holding custody of users' assets.

Code rules the world now, yet the finance sector has been somewhat protected by layers of regulation that discourage startups. Robinhood has jumped through the hoops, and they're just the beginning of the shift. In ten years, people might think it's crazy we used to pay to trade stocks when all it takes is a few taps.

]]>appsE-TradeFree Stock TradesinvestingrobinhoodScottradeTechCrunchWed, 18 Dec 2013 10:27:00 ESTApple iPhone Sales Reach 9 Million in First Sales Weekendhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/09/23/apple-iphone-sales-reach-9-million-first-sales-weekend/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/09/23/apple-iphone-sales-reach-9-million-first-sales-weekend/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/09/23/apple-iphone-sales-reach-9-million-first-sales-weekend/#commentsFiled under: Technology, Apple, Telecommunications, StocksDamian Dovarganes/AP
Apple has just issued a press release revealing it sold 9M iPhones during the launch weekend of its iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s. As is typical for the company with new hardware, it hasn't broken out individual model sales, but other signals point to a stronger debut weekend for the higher-end iPhone 5s than for the 5c. Apple blew away its previous record for first weekend iPhone sales, which was 5 million for the iPhone 5 last year.

The iPhone 5s was reportedly sold out in retail locations quickly around the globe, and shipping times at online Apple Store websites also slipped quickly into vague October time frames. The 5c, however, remains in stock and ready to ship within 24 hours at most, if not all international Apple online stores. Analysts had predicted between 5 and 8 million launch weekend sales across both devices, with KGI's Ming-Chi Kuo predicting a higher percentage going to the iPhone 5c. Stock constraints could mean that Kuo is still correct, despite the sell-out of the 5s models, but data from Localytics suggests otherwise.

If Apple stays true to its history, it probably won't break out individual model sales of iPhone 5s and 5c, as it has never broken out iPad mini sales, for instance. Analysts and market researchers will be plugging away at retail and other sources to try to determine the split, however, so it's possible we could eventually see some sort of consensus estimate emerge as a best possible guess.

Apple also announced that 200 million devices are now running iOS 7, the update it released for its mobile platform last week. That makes it the "fastest software upgrade in history," which is in keeping with the early numbers we saw reported from developers and analytics firms.

Another factor to consider with respect to these device numbers is that Apple's iPhone 5 launched in just 9 markets around the world, while the iPhone 5s and 5c debuted in 11 total, including China, where launch demand appeared strong. China accounted for two million sales of the iPhone 5 during its launch weekend last year alone, so that likely has added considerably to the total this time around for the 5s and 5c.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today that he was previously too afraid of taking Facebook (FB) public. "I've been very outspoken about staying private as long as possible", Zuckerberg said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt. "I don't think it's that necessary to do that."

He added that he was worried over the past year that employees would get demoralized by the down stock and would leave the company, but found that people kept their heads down and focused on building Facebook products.

"That's funny on the surface," Zuckerberg said after TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington asked Zuckerberg if he had advice for Twitter as it heads towards an IPO. "I'm the person you would want to ask last to do a smooth IPO. It's actually a valuable process. Having gone through a terrible first year as It made our company a lot stronger. You have to know everything about your company. It took us to the next level and we run our company much better now."

The duo talked about their interview at Disrupt a year ago, Zuckerberg's first since the IPO. The young Facebook CEO said he laid out Facebook's vision and mobile strategy, and noted that mobile now accounts for 40 percent of Facebook revenue.

"Your mobile products a year ago really sucked," Arrington said. "I think you deserved to have no revenue from them a year ago."

Zuckerberg chuckled and agreed, noting that, "We took a lot of shit for not making the mobile experience good."

Rumors that Foursquare is looking to take on a strategic investment from a large technology company kicked up a gear when several sources have reported that Microsoft is perhaps the potential suitor, and, to quote Dina Bass of Bloomberg, the talks are "advanced."

What the hell, you might be thinking, does Microsoft want with Foursquare? It's not application support for its platforms, that's already a done deal.

Instead, I think that the investment is being considered for the same reason that Microsoft pumped hundreds of millions into Facebook: Bing. By buying into Facebook as its only corporate investor, Microsoft has locked up a long-term deal to provide mapping and search capabilities for the social giant.

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Snagging a chunk of Foursquare is pro-Bing, albeit in a different fashion. Bing competes with Google and Apple to provide local data, and mapping. The two domains are increasingly overlapping as mobile maps become increasingly multifaceted and less about directions, and more about how to live. Bing, of course, on Windows Phone has Local Scout, a tool that combines geolocation and local business information.

Foursquare fits into this by simply having data that Microsoft wants. The startup has spent years accreting information from its users about more than restaurants, hotels, houses, and everything in between. Back that into Bing and it could enrich its offering perhaps past what Google proffers to mobile users.

Bing already uses Foursquare data. That is the reason I think that Microsoft is interested in the stuff: It knows its value. Also, it would hate to see the inflow stop (if Facebook died), or other parties buy it (Yahoo, etc.) and cut off its access. The move is a combination of offense and defense. Yahoo, of course, leans on Bing for the moment to power its search technology, but that might not be the case in a year's time.

This would improve the user experience of Windows 8, 8.1, Windows Phone 8, and the online desktop Bing experience.

Now, why not buy Foursquare outright? I don't think that Microsoft has to. Foursquare's last round valued the firm at $600 million. Investors would want a premium, and Microsoft has cash. It would not be a cheap acquisition, even given Foursquare current weaknesses.

But with say, $50 million, Microsoft could bail Foursquare out of its most recent loans, and inject enough capital for it to prove a revenue-fueled future. Microsoft gets access to its data, and doesn't have to pay a meaningful (it's quite rich) price for it. And, if Foursquare really does unwind, who would be there to pick up the pieces and pick out the assets that it wants but Microsoft, a current shareholder.

With its mobile business humming, what is Facebook focused on now? Well, Mark Zuckerberg's got some big ideas, like helping the whole world get on the Internet. And he's going to share them with our audience when he gets on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in September. His talk at our conference last year boosted Facebook's share price almost 9 percent, so we think this one is going to be eventful too.

Zuckerberg has been running Facebook for almost 10 years now. It's gone from tiny college startup to juggernaut social network, business darling to Wall Street black sheep and back again. Now it helps 1.15 billion people connect with friends, family, businesses, and increasingly, other applications.

In the meantime, Zuckerberg has tried to retain his hacker mentality while maturing to manage an increasingly complex business. He's led Facebook to some big successes this year. It's grown mobile to 41 percent of the company's total ad revenue, and Facebook (FB) shares have clawed their way back above the $38 IPO price.

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Not everything has gone smoothly, though. Facebook Home has been slow to gain traction, even if features like Chat Heads have done well on their own. An exodus of veterans employees and designers has shook the company. Facebook was able to buy its way out of competition with Instagram, but new photo sharing and international messaging apps are nipping at its heels. And despite a lack of conclusive evidence, critics continue to claim Facebook makes us sad and teens are tuning out.

But the most fascinating thing about Facebook might be Zuckerberg's ambitious plan to bring affordable Internet to the five billion people without it. Tuesday, he announced Internet.org, a partnership with six mobile companies to make the web accessible to everyone, and published a 10-page roadmap for getting there. Disrupt will be his first public talk since the Internet.org launch, where we'll see if he can convince the world it's really an altruistic endeavor, and not just a long-term user growth strategy.

We'll ask Zuckerberg about all these topics and what else he's pondering at Disrupt SF on Wednesday, Sept. 11. Also taking the stage will be Twitter's Dick Costolo, Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, and the world's top venture capitalists. Check out all of the influential speakers and guests joining us on the full Disrupt SF agenda.

Get your tickets now while you still can. We are only a week and a half away, so don't delay if you want to come. If you're interested in becoming a sponsor, opportunities can be found here.

Students can also come be a part of Disrupt SF. We have limited student tickets available, so be sure to go here to find out how to get yours quickly.

Mark Zuckerberg is the chairman and CEO of Facebook, which he founded in 2004. He is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company, leading the design of Facebook's service and the development of its core technology and infrastructure. Mark studied computer science at Harvard University before moving the company to Palo Alto, Calif.

Just a month and a half after he was announced as the new CEO of Zynga, former Microsoft executive Don Mattrick is cleaning house. He restructured the top level of management in a move that will see COO David Ko, CTO Cadir Lee and Chief People Officer Colleen McCreary leave.

Mattrick explained the move, saying that senior executives could work more directly with product. He said in a memo today, "We are taking layers out of the executive rank to get senior leaders closer to important product initiatives."

Lee and McCreary are very, very long-time Zynga executives who have been with the company for more than four years and have a complicated history. Lee was close with co-founder, former CEO and now chairman and chief product officer Mark Pincus, while McCreary was infamously associated with a brouhaha over how Zynga was attempting to claw back equity from employees.

Ko joined the company more recently from Yahoo. He had started off overseeing Zynga's mobile efforts, then was promoted to chief operating officer later after former COO John Schappert resigned. When Ko had talked to us in previous calls, he emphasized that Zynga was simplifying its slate of games and re-evaluating prospective titles in the pipeline, which has led to an intentionally thinner set of launches this and next quarter and lower revenues. While he has a reputation as savvy political operator, he lacked the years of direct experience in game development that many other longtime Zynga managers have had.

Mattrick also said the changes should embolden studio leads to take more initiative on product and game decisions. There are now three overall divisions: 1) studios, 2) technology, live ops and publishing and 3) functional areas covering legal, finance and human resources.

One observer said that the changes with studio leadership effectively put everyone in a horse race where they're more transparently and directly responsible for the performance of their units. In about two quarters, it should be obvious who is underperforming and who is not.

The studios are getting consolidated with Steve Chiang overseeing the Villes and International, which could be interpreted as a demotion since it doesn't include FarmVille. Meanwhile, Tim LeTourneau, who successfully oversaw the launch of Farmville 2, gets to continue to oversee Zynga's crown jewel franchise. Travis Boatman, a longtime EA Mobile executive who joined Zynga under Schappert's tenure, also continues to oversee mobile titles that fall under the "With Friends" brand. Barry Cottle, who was chief revenue officer, is now overseeing social casino games like Zynga Poker. Steve Parkis gets to oversee Zynga's very nascent foray into midcore gaming, where it faces a ton of competitors like Kabam, Kixeye and Supercell. Mark Skaggs will presumably continue to handle new game launches as senior vice president of games, while John Tien will also serve as a senior vice president of games in casual genres.

With the second division covering tech, live ops and publishing, Nick Tornow will be CTO, while Dorion Carroll will be CIO. Adam Sussman oversees Zynga's game publishing efforts, which are still very young after former lead Rob Dyer quit in June.

The last division covers functional areas and Reggie Davis will serve as General Counsel and executive vice president of legal, corporate and business affairs. Mark Vranesh continues as CFO while Meg Makalou will be the vice president of human resources.

Here's Mattrick's memo:

Over the past month, I have had a chance to interact with a cross section of our employees and have been able to get a general sense of the caliber of people working here, the passion for winning and desire to get Zynga back to a strong leadership. Zynga is an amazing company and has tremendous potential for future growth. Thank you for taking the time to share your stories and business, as well as your creative and technical insights with me. On a personal level, I feel privileged to be the CEO and am more aware than ever before that the time for us to decisively move forward is now.

In parallel to these meetings, I have been working with our leaders to review different parts of our business in order to develop a set of operating principles to help reset the company. We are now calibrating against the market opportunity and developing detailed plans to achieve topline growth and improve profitability in the future.

To support the above, we are announcing today a number of changes to our organization.

We are taking layers out of the executive rank to get senior leaders closer to important product initiatives. With that in mind, I have asked the leaders to sharpen their focus and properly densify talent to resource teams.

Our functional area leaders are Reggie Davis, General Counsel, EVP Legal, Corporate and Business Affairs (which includes Corporate and Business Development and Communications), Mark Vranesh, CFO, EVP, and Meg Makalou, VP Human Resources.

These leaders will report to me and form our new executive team with immediate effect.

As part of the change, Cadir Lee, Colleen McCreary, and David Ko will be leaving the company to pursue other interests. Each person has contributed to the growth of Zynga and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Cadir Lee for his dedication in the creation of a world class technical organization during his 5 year tenure, Colleen for her work with our recruitment and people process over the last 4 years and David Ko for the 3 years that he spent in leading various teams across the organization. We appreciate their contributions to Zynga's first chapter and wish them well in their future endeavors.

With the above in place, I believe that we will have the best chance to grow, build a world class executive team and culture, establish cadence and really become committed to important priorities and opportunities for our long term success.

I look forward to sharing more detail and answering your questions at tomorrow's All-Hands meeting.

The day for purple exclamation points (or lack thereof) has arrived. Yahoo just released its earnings report for the second quarter of 2013, with better-than-expected (non-GAAP) net earnings of $386 million, or 35 cents per share. Revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs) was flat compared to last year, at $1.07 billion.

Marissa Mayer just passed her one-year anniversary as CEO of Yahoo, and so far, expectations have been fairly low for the company, which has struggled mightily in recent years. Mayer has been busy instituting ambitious plans for the company, beginning with a memorable acquisition spree that seems to have included every forgotten or "B List" startup on the planet.

But Yahoo's future is still decidedly up in the air, and many remain unsure if Mayer can lead Yahoo through such an epic turnaround. Nonetheless, enthusiasm has begun to build, as the company's shares have been soaring of late. As a result, analysts predicted that the company would report revenue of $1.08 billion and 30 cents for EPS (up 11 percent for the year). Wall Street typically evaluates Yahoo on an ex-TAC basis, including the cost of acquiring traffic.

Ex-TAC, revenue was $1.07 billion for the quarter. To break that down: In turn, while search revenue actually overtook Yahoo's display revenue last quarter, the company was back to its usual trend this quarter. Search revenue was $403 million for Q2 (a 5 percent increase), while display revenue came in at $423 million (a 12 percent decrease). All in all, Yahoo had $4.8 billion in cash and securities in the second quarter, down from $6 billion in the same period last year.

GAAP display revenue was $472 million for the second quarter of 2013, a 12 percent decrease compared to $535 million for the second quarter of 2012 and the number of display ads sold dropped as well, not necessarily a good sign. That being said, paid clicks on Yahoo's search advertising increased 21 percent in Q2.

As Mayer begins her second year as CEO of Yahoo -- while her leadership is seen as crucial for turning the company around -- expectations are going to increase. She's been doing her best to tamp down expectations, and that will continue to work for a little while, but eventually investors are going to want to see real results -- and growth. Yahoo has been showing some slight gains on Google and Microsoft in search, but it's got plenty of work to do elsewhere.

"I'm encouraged by Yahoo!'s performance in the second quarter," Mayer said as part of today's earnings announcement. "Our business saw continued stability, and we launched more products than ever before, introducing a significant new product almost every week."

"From the new Yahoo! News, the new Yahoo! Sports app, the redesigned Yahoo! search, the new Flickr, the new Yahoo! Mail for tablet, the Yahoo! Weather app, our new Yahoo! app with Summly," she continued, "this quarter drove tremendous improvements in our product line and our users responded with increased usage and engagement."

As a result of its unprecedented acquisition spree of late, Yahoo has added a ton of engineering and product talent in a relatively short amount of time, and -- it would like to have you believe -- that it's been picking these startups up at rock bottom prices. By doing so, Yahoo and Mayer expect that it will be able to rebrand its mobile products and begin moving more aggressively into social marketing segments, along with reaching broader demographics and just generally putting a more attractive (inter)face to the world.

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But we also got a chance to see just how much Yahoo is willing to spend to make its turnaround (and all these acquisitions) possible. During the second quarter alone, Yahoo repurchased 25 million shares for $653 million and used a net $1 billion in cash for acquisitions -- including a net $970 million to acquire Tumblr.

These significant costs were offset, however, by the $846 million it received from redeeming its Alibaba shares. By the way, sale of its ownership in Alibaba is expected to net Yahoo close to $20 billion over the years to come. So for anyone wondering how the company was planning to finance its acquisition spree: Say "hello" to Alibaba, Yahoo's financier.

]]>earningsflickrInternetInvestingMarissa Mayerstockstechnologywall streetYahooyahoo earningsTechCrunchWed, 17 Jul 2013 07:52:00 ESTMicrosoft Offers Office App for iPhone - But With a Catchhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/06/14/microsoft-unveils-office-app-iphone/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/06/14/microsoft-unveils-office-app-iphone/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/06/14/microsoft-unveils-office-app-iphone/#commentsFiled under: Technology, Microsoft, Telecommunications, Mobile Technology, ComputersAP
Microsoft Office has finally arrived on Apple's iOS in an official app released by Microsoft itself, and it's free to download, but to use it there's a considerable catch: you need to be an Office 365 subscriber. Microsoft's Office 365 costs $99.99 for a 1-year subscription, and Redmond has really been pushing the SaaS-style version of its desktop productivity suite lately, so the iPhone app is a natural way for it to sweeten the deal for prospective buyers.

Microsoft calls the app its "official Office companion optimized for your iPhone," and the software provides Word, Excel and PowerPoint viewing, editing and creation. Documents are stored in the cloud on SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro or Sharepoint servers, making them easy to access again from the desktop or other sources, and the app works together with Office 365 to show you your most recently opened documents on your computer automatically. The app also lets you look at and edit documents attached to emails on your iPhone on the go.

Microsoft doesn't look to have skipped many corners building this app, with support for charts, animations, shapes and SmartArt graphics built-in, as well as a resume feature to pick up editing exactly where you left off on your desktop. There's offline functionality that commits changes back to the original once you find a connection, and comment sharing and review for collaborative editing.

Office for iPhone isn't optimized for iPad yet, thought it's hard to imagine that isn't close behind. And while you require an Office 365 subscription, you don't actually have to have the desktop version installed anywhere to use this mobile edition, so it is a fairly standalone product. You will need at least an iPhone 4, or a fifth generation iPod touch, running iOS 6.1 or higher, however. And the subscription requirement is sure to be a bummer for many, but the counterpoint of that is that the mobile version is completely free otherwise.

Lastly, this is U.S. only for now, but should roll out to other countries over the next little while, according to Microsoft, so if you are geoblocked, just have a little patience.

The company says this was result in $70 million to $80 million in annualized pre-tax savings. Despite those savings, its guidance for its second quarter earnings is a loss between $39 million and $28.5 million.

In a note to employees, CEO Mark Pincus described this as a "proactive" move that will "offer our teams the runway they need to take risks and develop these breakthrough new social experiences" on mobile and touchscreen devices.

My original post, which went up before the company confirmed the news, follows.

It looks like Zynga is in the midst of laying off one-fifth of its workforce.

At the end of last week, we heard that the company would be laying off 20 percent of its worldwide staff today, and that a number of Zynga's global offices would be affected. A Zynga spokesperson declined to comment, but we've seen the first public sign that the layoffs are underway: A Zynga UI designer just tweeted that Zynga L.A. will be closing, with about 55 employees let go.

This isn't the first time Zynga has had significant cuts. Last fall, CEO Mark Pincus said the company would be reducing costs, and it subsequently laid off 5 percent of its staff. The company has also eliminated some of its less successful titles (and even some unreleased ones), though executives have also said that the number of new game launches should pick up again later this year.

As of its last quarter, Zynga had 2,902 full-time employees. That's probably slightly off by now, but if the 20 percent number that we've been hearing is accurate, then around 580 employees will be affected.

Zynga's revenue and usage statistics continued to decline in its most recent earnings report, with Pincus describing this as a "transition year" as the company shifts its focus to mobile.

Yahoo has now officially confirmed that it is buying blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion, confirming speculation that started last week. It says it will keep it as an independent company, with founder David Karp at the helm as CEO. "The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators," it writes.

With a lot of negative comments coming in from Tumblr users in lead-up to the deal, and some competitors claiming that they're witnessing a kind of exodus from Tumblr as a result, Karp has also weighed in with his own announcement about the deal, emphasizing the same independence line: "We're not turning purple," he wrote:

"We're not turning purple. Our headquarters isn't moving. Our team isn't changing. Our roadmap isn't changing. And our mission -- to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve -- certainly isn't changing."

He also points out that Tumblr, joining up with the "original Internet company," will be getting more resources to create the "ultimate creative canvas." Some users have complained about certain features around the site, such as how video works, so the implication here is that areas like this will be addressed faster from now on, but -- again -- in a way that "doesn't compromise the community and product we love."

More to come. Yahoo's release below.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & NEW YORK -- Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Tumblr announced today that they have reached a definitive agreement for Yahoo! to acquire Tumblr.

Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business. David Karp will remain CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.

With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent on site each month. On mobile, more than half of Tumblr's users are using the mobile app and do an average of 7 sessions per day. Its tremendous popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network. The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! is expected to grow Yahoo!'s audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and to grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.

The deal offers unique opportunities for both companies. Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!'s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they'll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!'s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance the user experience.

Total consideration is approximately $1.1 billion, substantially all of which is payable in cash.

"Tumblr is redefining creative expression online," said Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. "On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo! couldn't be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn't be more complementary. Yahoo is the Internet's original media network. Tumblr is the Internet's fastest-growing media frenzy. Both companies are homes for brands - established and emerging. And, fundamentally, Tumblr and Yahoo! are both all about users, design, and finding surprise and inspiration amidst the everyday."

"I've long held the view that in all things art and design, you can feel the spirit and demeanor of the creator. That's why it was no surprise to me that David Karp is one of the nicest, most empathetic people I've ever met. He's also one of the most perceptive, capable entrepreneurs I've ever worked with," continued Mayer. "David's respect for Tumblr's community of creators is awesome. I'm absolutely delighted to have him join our team."

David Karp, CEO of Tumblr, addressed the Tumblr community, "Our team isn't changing. Our roadmap isn't changing. And our mission - to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve - certainly isn't changing. But we're elated to have the support of Yahoo! and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from."

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second half of the year.

Conference Call

Yahoo! will host a conference call at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time today to discuss this announcement. A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed through the company's Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/events.cfm?CalendarID=8. In addition, an archive of the webcast will be accessible for 90 days through the same link.

About Tumblr

Tumblr is a media network powered by an army of independent creators and home to an audience of more than 300 million unique visitors. Founded by David Karp in 2007, Tumblr is headquartered in New York City.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! is focused on making the world's daily habits inspiring and entertaining. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, and has offices located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC) and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the company's blog (yahoo.tumblr.com).

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Yahoo!'s proposed acquisition of Tumblr (including without limitation the statements contained in the quotations from management in this press release), as well as Yahoo!'s strategic and operational plans. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the possibility that the transaction will not close or that the closing may be delayed; and that the anticipated benefits to Yahoo!, including projected growth in audience and traffic, and benefits to users and advertisers may not be realized. More information about potential factors that could affect Yahoo!'s business and financial results is included under the captions, "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2013, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and available at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.

]]>InternetMarissa Mayermergers and acquisitionssocial mediaSocialNetworkingtechnologytumblrYahooTechCrunchMon, 20 May 2013 08:00:00 ESTWhy It's OK That You're Not Rushing Out to Get Facebook 'Home'http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/05/facebook-home-mark-zuckerberg-longterm-strategy/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/05/facebook-home-mark-zuckerberg-longterm-strategy/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/05/facebook-home-mark-zuckerberg-longterm-strategy/#commentsFiled under: Google, Facebook, Internet, Stocks, Mobile TechnologyMarcio Jose Sanchez/AP Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as seen on an HTC First smartphone using the new Facebook 'Home' interface.
Making you feel comfortable didn't get Facebook to a billion users. It had to push your limits of "open and connectedness." That's why so many of its product launches are initially met with outrage, or apprehension. But Zuck is convinced the amount we share will double each year. So if you don't want "Home" yet, fine. It's designed to handle how we share in 2016 so no one steals Facebook's future.

"If you asked people what they want, they would have said faster horses," Henry Ford supposedly said about building the car. That's because our minds think incrementally. Mark Zuckerberg is thinking exponentially. That's made him a pariah in the short-term, but one of the world's most influential people nine years after he started Facebook Inc. (FB).

]]>androidfacebookfacebook homegoogleInternetMark Zuckerbergmobile technologyphone appsmartphoneTechCrunchFri, 05 Apr 2013 12:25:00 ESTWant to Beat the Crap Out of Your iPhone? This Guy's Got You Coveredhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/11/want-to-beat-the-crap-out-of-your-iphone-this-guy-s-got-you-cov/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/11/want-to-beat-the-crap-out-of-your-iphone-this-guy-s-got-you-cov/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/11/want-to-beat-the-crap-out-of-your-iphone-this-guy-s-got-you-cov/#commentsFiled under: TechnologyAt Eureka Park at CES in the Venetian, we saw a ton of cool startups. But some of them really stood out. Like this guy. He was very excited about giving us a demo of his company's technology for letting you do amazingly horrible things to your mobile electronics.

The company is called Integrated Surface Technologies, and it basically coats your phone with stuff that protects it from being dunked in water and dropped and being smashed with a hammer. The video pretty much speaks for itself.

]]>CES 2013TechCrunchFri, 11 Jan 2013 15:15:00 ESTIndieGogo Founder Slava Rubin Says Crowdfunding Takes Down the 'Gatekeepers'http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/10/indiegogo-founder-slava-rubin-says-crowdfunding-takes-down-the/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/10/indiegogo-founder-slava-rubin-says-crowdfunding-takes-down-the/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/10/indiegogo-founder-slava-rubin-says-crowdfunding-takes-down-the/#commentsFiled under: TechnologySlava Rubin knows a thing or two about crowdfunding. Founded in 2008, his company, IndieGogo is a major funding powerhouse, bringing together such disparate projects like the Misfit Shine and The Oatmeal's anti-troll lawyer fundraiser.

Slava told us that IndieGogo essentially tears down the gatekeepers. Whereas many great projects would languish in the minds of their creators, services like IndieGogo have been able to bring them to fruition, creating a market and bringing together a group of rabid fans in a matter of days if not hours.

]]>ces 2013TechCrunchThu, 10 Jan 2013 18:00:00 ESTPandora CTO Tom Conrad on Bringing Personalized Radio to Automobiles Everywherehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/09/pandora-cto-tom-conrad-on-bringing-personalized-radio-to-automob/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/09/pandora-cto-tom-conrad-on-bringing-personalized-radio-to-automob/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/09/pandora-cto-tom-conrad-on-bringing-personalized-radio-to-automob/#commentsFiled under: TechnologyIn the dozen years since it first launched, personalized Internet radio pioneer Pandora has become a staple on people's computers and mobile phones. But the company's mission definitely does not end there. Recently, Pandora has become more and more prevalent as a built-in feature in automobiles. It's a big market - tons of radio is listened to while people are commuting in their cars - but it also comes with a unique set of challenges that are certainly separate from the world of traditional consumer electronics in which Pandora got its start.

Pandora CTO Tom Conrad is on the ground at the show in Las Vegas this week, and he swung by TechCrunch's on-site studio to chat with Ryan Lawler about Pandora's latest growth and upcoming goals - generally and in the auto space specifically.

Watch the video embedded above to hear Conrad talk about Pandora hitting 1,000 implementations in consumer electronics and automotives, how Pandora tackles its massive target market with a tight-running ship of 40 software engineers, how its consumer electronics strategy differs from its approach to the auto world, and what's on the road ahead (see what I did there?)

]]>TechCrunchWed, 09 Jan 2013 18:00:00 ESTReport: Apple Working On Low-Cost iPhonehttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/09/report-apple-working-on-low-cost-iphone/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/09/report-apple-working-on-low-cost-iphone/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/09/report-apple-working-on-low-cost-iphone/#commentsFiled under: Technology, AppleFollowing a report by Digitimes this morning citing industry sources, The Wall St. Journal is today confirming that it, too, hears that Apple is working on a low-cost version of the iPhone, which could launch as early as this year.

The phone could be made cheaper by using less expensive parts, the WSJ says. For example, it could use a different shell made of polycarbonate plastic, or parts recycled from older iPhone models. This isn't the first time the WSJ has reported that Apple was exploring such a device - in 2011, it issued a similar report, again citing the ever-present "people familiar with the matter" as sources.

Such a device would be ideal in targeting developing markets, including China, where the iPhone's high price is a concern. According to the WSJ report, Apple has been developing this cheaper iPhone for years, but could not decide how to move forward with the device.

If the report of the newer, cheaper iPhone is true, such a launch would position Apple to better compete with Android smartphones in emerging regions, where the move to smartphones is still a battle to be won. Android currently has the advantage, thanks to the variety of devices that can run the Android operating system, including those that come closer to matching the price point of the "feature phones" that users in these areas are upgrading from.

As mobile analytics provider Flurry noted a year ago, the largest addressable markets for mobile apps in 2012 included India, China, and Japan, among others. China in particular saw quick gains in 2012, with the country having climbed into the No. 2 spot in terms of new iOS and Android activations as of March. China is now Apple's second-largest market, but iPhone sales are losing traction to competition from Samsung and Nokia, plus domestic handset makers like Huawei, ZTE, and Lenovo.

That being said, sales of the iPhone 5′s launch in China were reportedly strong, despite reports about the lack of lineups for the device. Apple later said it sold over 2 million units the first weekend.

According to the Digitimes report, the low-cost iPhone would have a larger screen than the iPhone 5, which doesn't sound right - that would be costly. Digitimes, however, is more hit-or-miss in terms of its reporting. The WSJ, on the other hand, gives the rumor more credence.

Analysts have also said they believed Apple would have to launch such a device in order to reach the millions of users who couldn't afford the current iPhone.

]]>ces 2013TechCrunchWed, 09 Jan 2013 13:00:00 ESTMicrosoft Announces 60 Million Licenses for Windows 8 Soldhttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/08/microsoft-announces-60m-licenses-for-windows-8-sold-showing-sim/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/08/microsoft-announces-60m-licenses-for-windows-8-sold-showing-sim/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/08/microsoft-announces-60m-licenses-for-windows-8-sold-showing-sim/#commentsFiled under: Technology, MicrosoftWhether you're a Microsoft user or not, you have to respect the fact that its install base for operating systems is massive. The company spans plenty of sectors, specifically enterprise, but of course in the home, too.

Today, the company announced that its latest operating system, Windows 8, has sold 60 million licenses.

Finding out how many of these licenses are consumer and how many have been sold in bulk to vendors and enterprises would be a good thing. We've reached out to Microsoft for comment.

Here's what the Windows blog team did say about the milestone:

At the 11th Annual J.P. Morgan Tech Forum at CES 2013 today, Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller announced that Windows 8 has sold 60 million licenses to date. This represents the cumulative sales of Windows 8 including both upgrades and sales to OEMs for new devices. This is a similar sales trajectory that we saw with Windows 7.

We have seen a significant increase in the number of Windows 8 certified systems since general availability at the end of October. There are now more than 1,700 certified systems for Windows 8 and Windows RT.

In addition the news of how many licenses have been sold, the team says that Microsoft is seeing "strong growth" in the developers building on top of the platform. The number of available apps has been quadrupled since launch. Also, Microsoft says that it has passed the 100M app download mark.

Windows 8 has only been available for two months, so Microsoft sees this as solid growth. In October, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Windows 8 machines are "The best PCs ever" and that "The experience is truly magical." I don't know anything about that, but I will say that Microsoft has done a nice job of bringing all of its properties together in a unified look and feel, including Windows Phone and XBox.

]]>ces 2013TechCrunchTue, 08 Jan 2013 17:50:00 ESTJoin TechCrunch Live from CES 2013http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/07/join-techcrunch-live-from-ces-2013/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/07/join-techcrunch-live-from-ces-2013/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/07/join-techcrunch-live-from-ces-2013/#commentsFiled under: TechnologyEvery year TechCrunch rolls out to Las Vegas for complete CES coverage, including a live stream to beat all others. In 2013 we're looking forward to covering CES the TechCrunch way by focusing on the little guys trying to make it in a huge market, as well as all the cool stuff hidden behind the scenes.

In one of the most candid, and certainly most extensive interviews with Apple CEO Tim Cook on record, Bloomberg Businessweek today got the executive to open up about Apple and discuss some of the recent hot button issues facing his company. The result is an incredible look behind the curtain at the operating principles of the man who took over for Steve Jobs, which provides some terrific insight into many of the decisions he's made while in charge. Cook dishes on Maps, executive changes, overall management style, and making Macs in the U.S.A.

Changes: Transparency and Giving Back

Cook begins by discussing some of the differences between Apple during his tenure and the company before, starting right off with a quote from Jobs where he told Cook he "never want[s hims] to ask what I would have done," which became the fashionable thing for analysts and tech writers to do when looking at Cook's decisions since. The Apple CEO then goes on to discuss his policy changes, including a push for greater transparency and more charitable efforts on the company's behalf.

"We decided being more transparent about some things is great-not that we were not transparent at all before, but we've stepped it up in places where we think we can make a bigger difference, where we want people to copy us," Cook said in the interview. He added:

I think that Apple and Apple's employees have done enormous good and can do even more. One of the things that we have done is match our employees' charitable contributions, where they select who they want to give to. So it's not some corporate committee deciding, but it's our 80,000 employees deciding what they want to do, and then we match it.

Secrecy is still important to the company's governance, Cook said, but there are areas where transparency - complete transparency - made more sense, to help the company make bigger differences. And the employee donation matching program was most recently employed to help out victims of Sandy in NYC.

Scott Forstall's Departure: All About Collaboration

Cook was asked by Businessweek about executive shifts at the company, including the departure of Scott Forstall. He responded by talking about collaboration, something he called one of Apple's core values, and something he said was lacking before those changes were made:

The key in the change that you're referencing is my deep belief that collaboration is essential for innovation-and I didn't just start believing that. I've always believed that. It's always been a core belief at Apple. Steve very deeply believed this.So the changes-it's not a matter of going from no collaboration to collaboration. We have an enormous level of collaboration in Apple, but it's a matter of taking it to another level... You have to be an A-plus at collaboration. And so the changes that we made get us to a whole new level of collaboration.

While Cook framed it more as a question of realigning other executives and business areas to emphasize collaboration, it also seems clear from The CEO's omission of Forstall that he may have been a barrier in the way of that goal.

U.S. Mac Manufacturing: A $100 Million Investment in 2013

Apple will be moving some of its Mac manufacturing to the U.S., going beyond just assembly, Cooks told Businessweek. He reminded the publication that in fact the engine and processor for the iPad and iPhone are made in the U.S., but also commented that in 2013 there will be a much more "substantial" effort to make Macs in the U.S., potentially working with manufacturing partners ("this doesn't mean that Apple will do it ourselves," he said) via a $100 million investment in a U.S.-based production process.

We've already seen some of the most recent iMacs ship with an "Assembled in U.S.A." label, so this program is at least in part already underway. Hopefully we get more information on how extensive the endeavor is next year, maybe during Apple's first quarterly conference call in calendar 2013.

Maps: A Customer Experience Play That Backfired

Cook addressed accusations that Maps was all about making a smart business decision that led to a weaker user experience in the interview. Many suspected that the reason behind removing Google Maps from the iPhone was that Apple felt the search giant had too much influence on its platform. Cook said that isn't the case, suggesting doing their own maps app was the only way to get a few things done on the consumer side of the experience:

The reason we did Maps is we looked at this, and we said, "What does the customer want? What would be great for the customer?" We wanted to provide the customer turn-by-turn directions. We wanted to provide the customer voice integration. We wanted to provide the customer flyover. And so we had a list of things that we thought would be a great customer experience, and we couldn't do it any other way than to do it ourselves.

These are just a few of the issues Cook touched on, sketched out for interest's sake. But the full article is definitely worth a read, as Businessweek's Josh Tyrangiel did a great job of essentially asking Cook all the questions that have been asked about him in the media since he took over as Apple CEO, including, in a roundabout way, whether or not he's the emotionless robot executive stories often make him out to be.

The world's most powerful man went to Twitter to promote his plan to avoid the so-called 'fiscal cliff' of impending tax hikes. If his style is any indication, the prez tweeted from Camp David while sipping an Arnold Palmer. So, make like your commander in chief, put your feet up, and check out some of the best moments of tax policy in 140 characters or less:

Mr. President, can you assure us that any "fiscal cliff" negotiations regarding entitlement reform will not hurt the most needy? #My2K

Those are some of the reactions within Microsoft tonight upon hearing that Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky would be leaving the company "effective immediately". Those are the reactions because nearly all Microsoft employees found out about the news tonight alongside the rest of us.

Microsoft and Sinofsky are trying to spin this as a "mutual decision" - and understandably so. That's how this works. Nearly all of these types of exits are "mutual" until reported otherwise. From my understanding, this is no different. The details will undoubtedly trickle out in the days to come, but based on conversations with no less than a dozen current and former Microsoft employees ranging from mid to high-level, Sinofsky was indeed let go and the decision was made (or finalized) this morning, quickly. The "mutual" stuff is all about letting a longtime lieutenant save face.

But why? That's the big question that no one seems quite sure about just yet. There are whispers of internal division and strife. I have some other thoughts that may play out over the next few months. But the reality is that we just don't know right now. The strife card makes sense to play given the recent departure of iOS SVP Scott Forstall from Apple. On the surface (forgive me), there seems to be many parallels. But in a few respects, this Sinofsky situation appears to be almost the opposite of that situation.

The iOS Maps debacle gave Apple some cover to do something they've wanted to do for some time: get rid of Forstall. This Sinofsky move is "out of the blue," as two sources put it. That Microsoft and others can play it off as "this is no different from the recent Apple transition" is convenient, but...

Sinofsky was the guy that nearly everyone I spoke with thought was going to be the next CEO of Microsoft. In fact, many believed he was no-so-secretly being "groomed" for the role. And yet, he now finds himself out of the company.

Many I spoke with thought it was way too early for Surface sales to have anything to do with this exit. The same seems to be true of Windows 8, though the writing may have been a bit more clear on that wall... At the end of the day, this immediate move - and how many things that Microsoft does are immediate? - did not happen for no reason. It just may take some time for that reason to become apparent. But it's there, right now, in front of us.

Microsoft would not get rid of the "future CEO of the company" on a random night in November after 23 years of service and right after the launch of two key products under his watch for no reason. This is not Apple CEO Tim Cook making a move one year into the job in an attempt to create an operating flow closer to his managerial style. Steve Ballmer has been in charge of Microsoft for nearly 13 years and Sinofsky has been close by for all of those years.

People on the outside thought Scott Forstall had a shot of being the next CEO of Apple, but people on the inside were sure that Steven Sinofsky was going to be the next CEO of Microsoft. Instead, he's just the latest in a string of executive departures over the past few years. And any spin that this was "planned" or "mutual" reeks of bullshit. Steven Sinofsky is taking the fall for something. (Or something is not being disclosed.) And we're all going to know what that is soon.

In the meantime, feel free to listen to Sinofsky himself try to pre-empt speculation about his departure:

Some might notice a bit of chatter speculating about this decision or timing. I can assure you that none could be true as this was a personal and private choice that in no way reflects any speculation or theories one might read-about me, opportunity, the company or its leadership.

So, Sinofsky woke up today and decided he didn't want to be CEO of Microsoft. He decided he wanted to sleep in. Right.